Customer with food sensitivity to artificial vanillin.

Hello. Has anyone had a problem with customers or patients who have an intolerance to artificial vanillin? I have had one patient who became quite violent after eating chocolate that contained artificial vanillin. How common is this? Any help would be appreciated. thanks.

By kai wyrill (Kai) on Thursday, February 18, 1999 - 11:52 pm: Edit

Aren't there certain chemicals in all artificials that are potential problems? (Sorry I don't have an answer, but, I for example, do not tolerate the artificial sweeteners...)

kai

By michael f. higgins (Mike) on Friday, February 19, 1999 - 01:43 am: Edit

YOU ARE PROBABLY RIGHT ABOUT THE CHEMICALS KAI, BUT I HAVEN'T SEEN ANY MENTION OF THIS IN ANY OF THE MEDICAL DATABASES. THE MORE I LOOK INTO THIS, THE MORE COMPLEX IT BECOMES. MIKE

By Hans (Hans) on Friday, February 19, 1999 - 06:37 pm: Edit

Here is an interesting excerpt from an essay that I came across on the net. Link is below.
http://www.speakeasy.org/misc/JunkFood.html

Junk food is not always pretty, but neither is this country, as we have seen in recent weeks. But it can be a source of understanding. For one recent example: Prior to the second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, there are Hostess Turtles pies (advertised as "Fresh from the sewers to you!") and Farley's Turtle Eggs. Since there are no female mutant turtles, I don't know where the eggs come from; the pies have "vanilla puddin' power" within the famous Hostess crust and a thorough layer of green frosting. I have publicly nauseated people by eating one in their presence. Kids, of course, get off on doing things considered gross by people my age. As for the fantasy of foods arriving fresh from the sewer, it's a natural for a target audience of guys living in the years between toilet training and puberty,some of whom have a healthy obsession with exploring the sides of human/animal nature that us grownups keep trying to ignore.

The "vanilla" flavor in the pies probably came from a 42-year-old south Seattle plant that made over three million pounds of vanillin a year. According to the Times, the chemical flavoring was extracted from sulfite-waste liquor from wood pulp, processed with sodium hydroxide. One pound of vanillin was taken from 140 pounds of pulp, used for important drugs as well as flavoring; the remaining pulp was sent on to paper mills. Now, the plant's closing, replaced by a Sunbelt plant that will make a synthetic substitute -- an imitation imitation.

(I want to hear no grumblings from the natural-food crowd about how unappetizing this all sounds. Vanillin is chemically identical ("nature-identical" in British lingo) to traditional vanilla; it just comes from a tree instead of a bean. Besides, some of these same purists will drench their pancakes with concentrated tree sap.)

By kai wyrill (Kai) on Saturday, February 20, 1999 - 01:45 am: Edit

This excerpt from your response, "The "vanilla" flavor in the pies probably came from a 42-year-old
south Seattle plant that made over three million pounds of
vanillin a year. According to the Times, the chemical flavoring
was extracted from sulfite-waste liquor from wood pulp,
processed with sodium hydroxide. One pound of vanillin was
taken from 140 pounds of pulp, used for important drugs as well
as flavoring; the remaining pulp was sent on to paper mills. Now,
the plant's closing, replaced by a Sunbelt plant that will make a
synthetic substitute -- an imitation imitation."

is interesting...I always thought vanilla came from orchids, and, that therefore, vanillan or some fake substitute would still, somehow, be related. Boy, the humility I get from just awakening!

kai

By Gerard Jones (Gerard) on Monday, May 17, 1999 - 08:56 pm: Edit

Having used vanilla for 30 yrs I admit not knowing where it comes from or care, I do know vanillin tastes like trash.
Anything containing vanillin is therefore?

Nuff said.